Violence

Hours before he walked into his workplace at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center with two handguns to fatally shoot his bosses and then himself, Mario Ramirez went about his morning routine with his usual kindness and good cheer, his sister-in-law said. He gave his children breakfast, took them to school (he had moved his family to Alhambra because its classrooms seemed safer than those in Boyle Heights) and returned home to get ready for his job as a technician at the hospital's pharmacy.

An overnight spasm of homicidal violence in the District of Columbia ended near dawn with seven men dead and three wounded, including a triple slaying after a street argument, a drive-by shooting near an elementary school, a deadly domestic dispute and a craps game that ended in a fusillade of bullets, police said. All the killings, including the slaying of a man found with his throat cut in his car near his home, occurred within about a two-mile radius in sections of northeast and southeast Washington.

Israeli forces killed three Palestinian militants on the Gaza Strip border, the military and Israeli media said. Israel said the three were planting explosives. There was no immediate Palestinian comment. Despite the violence, Israel's Defense Ministry said it had decided to open three border crossings to allow some supplies into Gaza.

By the time Iranian authorities drew the curtain this week, it was too late. Attempts to choke off coverage of massive protests and postelection street battles between dissidents and government forces came well after the American public had reset a nascent and evolving impression of Iran, experts say. With the cooperation of the government, the global media buzzed in the days before the June 12 election with images of a youthful and exuberant Iran engaged in political debate.

A vehicle carrying Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva was attacked by anti-government protesters Tuesday as turmoil intensified in Thailand days ahead of a key regional summit. A group of 50 protesters smashed the rear window and pummeled Abhisit's driver and bodyguards while the vehicle was stopped at a red light, according to local media reports and witnesses.

Alfred Lomas stood at the front of a bus. "This," he bellowed, "is not a bus!" The driver pulled out of the Dream Center, a church ministry where Lomas directs a mobile food bank. Lomas stared into the anxious faces of congregants and do-gooders, his sunglasses hiding dark, deep-set eyes that have seen more than their share of hurt, much of it of his own making. "This," he said, "is a vehicle of hope!" The bus lurched and sighed into South Los Angeles.

The United Nations said today that cluster bombs had hit the last functioning hospital in Sri Lanka's northern war zone and that 52 civilians had been killed in the region in the previous 24 hours. On Tuesday, the United States, European Union, Japan and Norway urged the Tamil Tiger rebels to consider surrendering to avoid more deaths. It was the first time cluster bombs were known to have been used in the government's push to defeat the rebels since the collapse of a cease-fire in 2006.

Every day, we wake up to headlines and images of devastating and seemingly endless violence in hot spots around the globe. In Pakistan, for example, a series of attacks over the last few weeks has killed scores and seriously injured many more. But beneath the headlines, there is another great challenge that is often the root cause of violence or its unintended consequences: increasing rates of hunger and an alarming lack of food. One of the recent attacks in Pakistan struck the United Nations World Food Program office in Islamabad.

It is a Sunday morning and there is still dew on the grass outside Faith Inspirational Missionary Baptist Church. Already, God has received a standing ovation. The thermometer on the wall claims it's only 75 degrees in here, but congregants are dancing in the aisles, some with their shoes kicked off and stashed under the pews. Their sweat mixes with their tears, and for once in Compton, they are tears of joy. "People of faith!" thunders the Rev.

Even in a country that has endured so much suffering, few images could more tragically convey the senseless violence gripping Somalia today than the expressionless stare of a 5-year-old boy named Omar. As he slept next to his mother one recent morning, a stray bullet from a nearby gun battle struck him in the back of the head. He made no movement or sound, so his family members didn't even notice at first. Later they saw blood oozing from a small hole in his head and thought it was a snakebite.